“I do not believe
anybody in Congress doubts that the Constitution
authorizes the right
of women to vote, precisely as it authorizes
trial by jury and many
other like rights guaranteed to citizens.”

And again, General Butler said:

“It is not laws we want; there
are plenty of laws—­good enough, too.
Administrative ability to enforce law is the great
want of the age, in this country especially.
Everybody talks of law, law. If everybody
would insist on the enforcement of law, the government
would stand on a firmer basis, and questions would
settle themselves.”

And it is upon this just interpretation of the United
States Constitution that our National Woman Suffrage
Association which celebrates the twenty-fifth anniversary
of the woman’s rights movement in New York on
the 6th of May next, has based all its arguments and
action the past five years.

We no longer petition Legislature or Congress to give
us the right to vote. We appeal to the women
everywhere to exercise their too long neglected “citizen’s
right to vote.” We appeal to the inspectors
of election everywhere to receive the votes of all
United States citizens as it is their duty to do.
We appeal to United States commissioners and marshals
to arrest the inspectors who reject the names and votes
of United States citizens, as it is their duty to
do, and leave those alone who, like our eighth ward
inspectors, perform their duties faithfully and well.

We ask the juries to fail to return verdicts of “guilty”
against honest, law-abiding, tax-paying United States
citizens for offering their votes at our elections.
Or against intelligent, worthy young men, inspectors
of elections, for receiving and counting such citizens’
votes.

We ask the judges to render true and unprejudiced
opinions of the law, and wherever there is room for
a doubt to give its benefit on the side of liberty
and equal rights to women, remembering that “the
true rule of interpretation under our national constitution,
especially since its amendments, is that anything
for human rights is constitutional, everything against
human rights unconstitutional.”

And it is on this line that we propose to fight our
battle for the ballot—­all peaceably, but
nevertheless persistently through to complete triumph,
when all United States citizens shall be recognized
as equals before the law.

SPEECH OF

MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE,

In Canandaigua and 16 other towns of Ontario county,
previous to Miss Anthony’s Trial, June 17th,
1873.

THE UNITED STATES ON TRIAL;

not

SUSAN B. ANTHONY.

Governments derive their just powers from the consent
of the governed. That is the axiom of our republic.
From this axiom we understand that powers used by
the government without the consent of the governed,
are not just powers, but that on the contrary,
they are unjust powers, usurped powers,
illegal powers.